Darkness. Shadows. Nightmares. Dreams. These were common for Darth Verena in her slumber since she was forced to exile herself or face extinction. The planet of Lehon, homeworld of the lost Rakatan species was lost to time, forgotten, discarded and then rediscovered time and time again over the last 25,000 years. When Ziki came to this planet, the now-tribal Rakatan people lived underground and paid little attention to the surface world. She had found that the system was unstable due to the design of it by the ancient Rakatans. She manipulated her ship using the Force to prevent her vessel from crashing on the surface of Lehon and instead managed to precariously 'park' the huge vessel near a series of huge buildings that she was unsure of what or who created them.

Following a time to setup the vessel and her affairs in order so that all would be safe while she slept, the woman performed this ritual and entered into a physiological stasis and slept for thousands of years. Then, like a bolt of lightning coming out of a great storm, the Force knocked upon her consciousness. A group of pirates seeking lost treasures and technology to scavenge came to the planet. In their searches, they found the temple that Ziki had stored herself in. Her vessel had been consumed, mostly on the exterior, by the natural growth of plants on the tropical planet. Their presence and intensely loud behavior awakened the spark of her consciousness.

Like a swirling cloud of darkened lights over water, the pins of her ritual came undone. Her consciousness reconstructed itself and re-energized her soul. Then, as her body came awake, she let out a deep, powerful scream which shook the entire temple. The pirates were frightened, wary of the sudden awakening of something they couldn't explain. Her eyes opened, filled with rage and hunger. Her form outstretched across the temple and felt the presence of the living. Through the Force, her willpower tore the pirates apart, one by one, until their Living Force was consumed whole and completely.

The rage she felt only fueled the fire to which to burn these poor creatures. When the last one was slaughtered in her awakening, she came to full consciousness and ability. This entire event being broadcasted across the Force like an intense beacon of something terrible. Having realized that these were pirates, she searched the entire temple, grabbing anything they had and even took whatever they had in their cargo holds back to her ship. Finding her old ship took some time considering the growth in the last 4,000 years, but she did eventually find it.

Removing all of the foliage which consumed her vessel, she eventually got it cleaned off and went to work on getting the vessel to function once more. After a few days of working, she eventually got it working and found that the hyperdrive had just enough fuel left to get her to somewhere in the Outer Rim. Now that she would be able to return to the galaxy with some decent wealth and a functioning vessel, Darth Verena meditated in her meditation chamber, focusing her soul on the Force and listening to what she could hear. She cared little on keeping herself secret and hidden until she was certain that the Jedi had a prominent presence in the galaxy.

Once she had determined that the Light Side had not been fully defeated, she cloaked herself in the Force and went about finding the Sith across the Galaxy...

{{ADMIN}} The effects of having used what is essentially, if not specifically, the effects of Force Drain to kill multiple sentient beings in a specifically horrific way has left her eyes permanently altered to the burning yellow and red indicative of powerful Dark Side practitioners.

Rkarziki listened deeply to the Force, hoping to find an answer to the mystery of where and when she was. The planet looked different than she had remembered it so it was clear some time had passed. She could no longer sense as many sentient lifeforms on the planet and that meant that even more than just time had passed. The visions of the present meddled with the visions of the past, showcasing a massive series of wars that occurred, obscured by the passage of time to give forth specific details.

Awakening from her Force meditation, the Twi'lek moved into her personal sleeping chambers and into the bathroom. She witnessed that she had barely aged at all, but the noticeable taint of her destruction upon those poor innocent souls had left her eyes scarred and glowing with the power of the Dark Side. Ziki cared little for the moment, but now, she had to formulate a plan to escape this planet and return to the known regions of the galaxy.

Returning to the cockpit of the vessel, she activated her Holonet receiver which alerted her to the fact that her firmware and software were extremely out of date. So out of date, in fact, that she would not be able to receive or send any data until she installed a new one. Checking her current star charts revealed that she was not far from Bakura, a wild planet with an available spaceport. Such a place is where she could go to update her vessel and prepare for her next move.

For now, she would return to meditation in the hopes of sensing someone in this galaxy that might be friendly to her cause...

In a galaxy where the balance of the Force felt more like deep space radio static than the tipping of some great galactic metaphorical scale, her presence just added to the noise... but she felt something. A pull, a presence, a swirling darkness from the heart of the old Sith Empire. The Stygian Caldera, Sith Space itself, still swirled with hostility and seductive power. The whispers of the Dark Side seeping through the void to lure in the weak and strong alike. To their destruction or enslavement, chains hidden in promises of power as ever was its way.

At its center was a presence, a powerful practitioner full of patience and purpose underscored with a sharpness of vision. A dark ruler, secure in his might and mastery, at the head of fleets of war machines. Her focus, her attention, drew his and that dark presence weighed upon her suddenly as she was discovered by the powerful presence. Submit yourself! Stand before me! There was no option suggested, no hesitance brooked. A stray servant had been discovered and the Force wrapped itself around her with a noticeable pull toward this dark master.

The inescapable darkness which has swelled and consumed the Stygian Caldera called out to her, seeking her, pulling her towards it like an electromagnetic beacon of unimaginable power. There was no question in Darth Verena's mind anymore that the Sith were still alive, well, and just as dangerous as they were before. The power that pulled to her, swirled in the void beckoning her to relinquish herself onto it. Then, it came... or... instead a he?

A man she sensed, but not just any man... a man of incredible and dangerous power which could not be controlled save for his own capabilities and desires to keep control of the passionate, wanton power oscillating within him. A wicked grin crossed her lips as she sent an equally strong response back, "I shall not submit to anything but the Force... I shall seek you out." And with that, she relinquished from the deep reaches of Sith Space into the tiny little room of her meditation chamber, tens of thousands of light years away.

Realizing that the Sith still clearly had a presence, it meant that the Jedi Order was either dying, dead, or broken. Verena took a break and got some food before going back to more meditation. This time, she purposefully sought the Jedi, but with a severe Force cloaking upon her signature so that it would neither register as Light or Dark. Merely an intention to find out if the Jedi were as weak as they felt in this age or was it merely her own selfish desires...

All her defiance got by way of a response was mild amusement, and then the powerful presence was gone.

When she reached out for the Jedi in her disguised way she didn't have to look long. The Jedi were not terribly spread out at the moment, though more so than the Sith. Many were in the Outer Rim, up in the galactic 'north' as it were. As she stretched out, four minds became aware of her almost immediately. Quickly, others followed until thirteen were focused and in concert on her presence. Two in the Core, the rest with the beacon of light that was likely the Jedi Temple in the Outer Rim. The two in the Core couldn't have been more different. The first had a mind like a prefabricated fortress, simple of structure but strong none the less. The other was a shifting, misty labyrinth that promised intruders a frustrating defeat.

And the other eleven were just as varied in their structure and approach, as if every single one of them had been trained by an entirely separate Force tradition. Their presences were even more diverse than the Jedi Order that Darth Verena would remember. A tentative query came through the Force, a request for her identity and disposition. The entire lot waited but they were not wary, merely prepared and determined. The results of years of fighting, only the most capable survived such things. The flaw in the Sith efforts to destroy the Jedi was that it inevitably refined and distilled them, leaving only their strongest elements.

The dark presence clearly had intentions for her now that Darth Verena was known, but she had no intention of allowing this presence to manipulate her as easily as they believe they can. The past experiences with the Emperor and his manipulations had only made Verena even more convicted to protect herself by any means necessary. Only with time had she learned the benefit of quieting her mind and the Force around her which gave her the strength of a powerful Force stealth. Her willpower was not something easily destroyed or controlled and that would be the way she preferred it.

The presence of such strengthened yet scattered Jedi only gave rise to the knowledge that clearly something had changed deeply in the Jedi Order since her time. That new knowledge forged a powerful desire to search out potential allies and begin the work needed to restore the galaxy as to what it was supposed to be. Without giving knowledge of her identity or intentions, she dissipated her connection to those other individuals and opened her eyes. A clear goal in mind allowed Verena to prepare for the eventual necessities of war.

Darth Verena moved from her meditation chamber to the cockpit and made preparations to launch her starship, intent on heading to Bakura to update and repair her vessel for its various journeys. After getting the starship off the planet, she realized very quickly that the planetary system was not the same as she had left it. The debris field that nearly engulfed the entire system created a difficult and unique piloting situation, but nothing that wouldn't be too difficult for the patient Verena.

Focusing on the Force, Verena began to control her vessel's movements, maneuvering around the various debris until she would have a chance for a clear hyperspace jump to Bakura...